Hide Yo’ Kids, Hide Yo’ Wife: The EFF’s Attempt at Promoting Privacy through “Security”
In the EFF video, “The creepy spying power buried in the Patriot Act,” a voiceover actor describes how the NSA security program works, how the Patriot Act came into being, and how this could potentially harm its viewers. The video flashes quickly from an image of a woman talking on her cell phone to darkened images of a man, Congress, the American flag, and of the executive office. The video ends by urging the EFF’s viewers to contact Congress and prevent the reinstating of Clause 215, which has been used to collect phone records and called it “tangible evidence.” The EFF appeals to existing hegemonic ideologies of security, often created by Holywood, to make an an argument about personal security being connected to privacy from the government. The video’s use of camera angles, a female actor, the shady “hacker” setting, and patriotic symbols all combine to support the EFF’s ideology and co-opt privacy as a foundation of security.
The NSA used the argument of national security to impede on American’s privacy within their personal interactions. The EFF challenged the idea that those two ideologies are opposed by connecting security with privacy in an intimate way, and by making the government into the enemy of citizens. The camera angles in “Creepy Spying power” are used to create that feeling of being spied on by the government. In the video, the subject, a woman on her cell phone, is recorded as if she has no knowledge of the camera. She doesn’t acknowledge its existence, despite it occasionally zooming in on her, and continues on her business in a crowded area. This, minus the presence of any kind of plot creates the effect of spying. The camera, rather than just show a post 9/11 video of Congressmen, also records a TV playing the video instead. This effect might allude to ideas Hollywood has promoted, but the ideology promoted is one of personal security. Although Americans view personal security as a God-given right, in most countries, the right to have the safety of private interactions is only created by strongly held ideas of the people. If the audience members feel like their personal security is threatened, they are more likely to support the plan the EFF is proposing, which has the side effect of promoting the ideology of privacy. Interestingly, while arguments about privacy usually oppose arguments about national security, the EFF has manipulated that feeling of security and turned the government into the enemy from which you need protection. Again, no government has to respect privacy, but it is an ideology that influences the way we govern. Privacy is not a hegemonic idea, otherwise the EFF might rely on it, rather than use an actual hegemonic idea, security, to promote it.
The video also appeals to a heteronormative ideology of women being especially vulnerable by portraying a female actress talking alone on her cell phone in a public setting. The scene is of an adult female, dressed in a brown leather jacket. When the video uses her, she is usually in a park-like setting, holding a cell phone up to her ear. The EFF could have used any actor in this film, but instead they chose to use an actress. The use of this women refers to the heteronormative ideology of women being more vulnerable, or needing more protection. Other examples of this technique can be found in Hollywood, which the average internet user has likely been exposed to. The camera angles certainly promote the idea of her being vulnerable to something unknown, but the fact that she is a women in a public space can also imply, through this ideology alone, that her personal security is particularly at risk. We emphasize the personal security of women in public spaces because we entertain the belief that, if they are going to be threatened, that is more likely to happen when they are alone and at the mercy of strangers. By emphasizing the risk to personal security through a “vulnerable” woman, the EFF reinforces its view that people need privacy from the government, especially the NSA.
The video also employs the use of what I will call a shady “hacker” setting to feed on a fear many viewers might have about their own privacy and security. Hackers and the setting in which they work is unknown to many people because of its especially technical nature, and this element of the unknown is especially scary. The EFF uses a series of images promoted by Hollywood, which refer to someone, usually unknown, accessing private files or data over the Internet. This effect is created through the use of a dark background with scrolling numbers, the linking of smiling personal photos over this ominous background, and the darkened face of a white, unknown, bespectacled man with a computer screen reflected in his glasses. The “hacker” effect is created because hackers are usually associated with white, intelligent men. The man looks to be of Caucasian descent, and the glasses could imply intelligence. The other part of the “hacker” aura is the dark screen, usually with green text running quickly over it. It hearkens back to the early days of computers when all primary level coding looked like that. Today, the symbol serves only to stand for those intelligent and motivated enough to go into “your” primary code: hackers. Hackers present an obvious vulnerability for the average viewer, which again can promote privacy and the EFF’s message. They pose a threat to you, and if privacy will stop them, the audience member will do what he or she can to stop that.
“Creepy spying” also relies on the use of patriotic symbols in subverted ways to criticize the ideology of patriotism as it was used to create the Patriot Act. An American flag, an image of the Constitution, a video of post- 9/11 Congressmen, and the seal of the President’s office all appear in shady lighting or associated with the hacker theme throughout the course of the video. The images are grainy, sometimes actually darkened, and in the case of the video, are shot from in front of an old TV screen rather than just being played. None are presented in full lighting. If the message of the video is that patriotism was subverted to create the Patriot Act, then the use of American symbols in this way reflects the ideology of patriotism in the way the author sees it.
The EFF’s goal of “Creepy Spying” is to engage and terrify its audience members into acting against section 215 of the Patriot Act. It creates this effect by using Hollywood tropes of hackers and vulnerable women, portrayed through dark screens, scrolling green text, and a women who is unaware she is being spied on. The EFF even goes so far as to subvert common ideologies of patriotism, which created the Patriot Act, for their own cause. These images rely on the idea of hackers and vulnerable women to make it seem that the viewer’s own privacy and security are at risk. The EFF does this all while relying on commonly held ideologies to promote its own ideology of privacy on the internet being tantamount to anything else.